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Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 video game)
|distributor = Disney Interactive Studios |engine = |series=''Sonic the Hedgehog'' |platforms = PlayStation 3 Xbox 360 |released = Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 |genre = Platform, action-adventure |modes = Single-player, multiplayer |director = Richard Donner |producer = Baker Bloodworth Don Hahn Lauren Shuler Donner Jim Van Wyck Dino De Laurentiis Martha De Laurentiis Raffaella De Laurentiis Pam Marsden |artist = Akira Mikame |writer = Story: David S. Goyer Geoff Johns Chris Terrio Screenplay: Chris Terrio Additional Screenplay: Stephen J. Anderson Roger Allers Linda Woolverton |composer = Alan Menken Harry Gregson-Williams }} is a 2006 platform video game developed by Sonic Team, Radical Entertainment, Saber Interactive, Beenox, Raven Software and High Moon Studios and published by Sega, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Vivendi Games (under the name Sierra Entertainment) for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game serves as a reboot of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog series, and was produced in commemoration of its fifteenth anniversary. The story follows the individual quests of three hedgehogs—Sonic Sr, Shadow, and Silver—to defeat Solaris, an ancient evil pursued by Doctor Eggman. Sergei Gurlukovich and Cynder and they were aided by new allies. Development of Sonic the Hedgehog began in 2004. The game was conceived as an original intellectual property before being reworked into an entry in the Sonic series. The team was directed by Richard Donner, and was the game was designed to relaunch the franchise for the seventh generation of video game consoles. Though positively received in pre-release showings, it experienced a difficult development cycle, with Naka resigning to form his own company and the team split to work on the PlayStation 2 and Wii title Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007). The game was rushed to the market to release in time for the holiday season; versions for the PlayStation 2, Wii and Microsoft Windows were cancelled. Since release, the title has often been referred to by critics and fans of the series with colloquial terms that reference its year of release, such as Sonic '06. Sonic the Hedgehog became notable for receiving negative reception upon release. Criticism was directed at the game's perceived lack of polish, with reviewers citing long loading times, a poor camera system, gameplay glitches, a complicated plot, and imprecise control. It has been considered among the worst games in the Sonic series and in the video game medium. Sega delisted the title from retailers in 2010, following its decision to remove all Sonic titles with sub-average Metacritic scores to increase the value of the brand. Gameplay Sonic the Hedgehog is a 3D platformer with action-adventure and role-playing elements. Like Sonic Adventure, the single-player navigates through open-ended hub worlds where they can converse with townspeople and perform missions to advance the story. The main gameplay takes place in linear levels that become accessible as the game progresses. The main playable characters are three hedgehogs: Sonic, Shadow, and Silver, who feature in separate campaigns titled "episodes". A bonus "Last Episode", which involves all three hedgehogs and concludes the storyline, is unlocked upon completing the first three. Sonic's story focuses on the speed-based platforming seen in [[Sonic the Hedgehog#Common features|previous Sonic games]], with some sections having him run at full speed while dodging obstacles or riding a snowboard. Another character, Princess Elise, must be escorted in some stages, and she can use a special barrier to guard Sonic. Shadow's sections are similarly speedy, albeit more combat-oriented, with some segments having him ride vehicles. In contrast, Silver's levels are slower and revolve around his use of telekinesis to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. In certain areas, control is switched to one of several friend characters, with their own abilities. Only the first page of the review is archived. Although each character traverses the same levels, their unique abilities allow the player to access different areas of each stage and prevent them from accessing certain items. Scattered through each level are golden rings, which serve as a form of health. The rings can protect a character from a single hit by an enemy or obstacle, at which point they will be scattered and blink before disappearing. The game begins with Sonic, Shadow, and Silver each assigned a limited number of lives. These lives are successively lost whenever, with no rings in their possession, the characters are hit by an enemy or obstacle or encounter other fatal hazard. The game ends when the player exhausts the characters' lives. Every few levels, players will encounter a boss stage; to proceed, they must defeat the boss by depleting its health meter. Upon completion of a level or mission, players are given a grade depending on their performance, with an "S" rank being the best and a "D" rank being the worst. Players are given money for completing missions; more money is given to higher ranks. This money can be used to buy upgrades for the player character. Certain upgrades are required to complete the game. The game also features two multiplayer modes: "Tag", a cooperative mode where two players must work together to cle Plot Original Story The game begins inside a temple in Los Angeles in March 23, 1925, where a large red dragon named Ignitus (voiced by Gary Oldman) (who helped the Allied Forces to win World War I and liberate the world) is watching over an egg; it is the "Year of the Dragon", a time every twelve years when new dragon eggs are brought to the realm in Los Angeles. A dragons' prophecy tells that every ten generations, a rare purple dragon will be born, who will direct the fate of that era; Ignitus is looking after such an egg. The dragons are, however, at war with an enemy known as the "Dark Master", who also knows of the prophecy, and lays siege to the temple, intent on destroying the brood of eggs. Ignitus escapes with the blue hedgehog's egg, leaving it to drift downriver from Panama Canal to New York City, hoping for the best. The egg is discovered by a family of dragonflies, and upon hatching, they name the blue hedgehog Sonic Sr (Adult voiced by Patrick Dempsey, Teen voiced by Bryce Papenbrook and Young voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) and adopt him into the family and raise him as one of their own, alongside Sparx (Adult voiced by David Spade, Teen voiced by Adam Wylie and Young voiced by Zachary Gordon), a dragonfly born the same day. Many years passed since Sonic Sr's birth in the Old Dragon Temple in the city of Los Angeles on March 23, 1925. On one fateful day in the heart of Brooklyn in January 22, 1940 after the World War II began when Sonic Sr and Sparx were playing hide 'n' seek, a group of Apes attacked the duo and Sparx was captured in the process. Sonic Sr disposed most of the group when Sparx gave the leader a sarcastic insult. The leader didn't take the insult very well and was about to kill Sparx. Sonic Sr, furious, unconsciously used his M1928 Thompson to open fire on the leader, who promptly retreated report back to someone called Cynder only to be killed by the NYPD Officers. Sonic Sr dealt with and killed the remaining Apes before freed Sparx from his 'lantern' cage with the M1911 pistol. Upon returning to Brooklyn, he was told by his foster parents, Flash (voiced by Cameron Clarke) and Nina (voiced by Vanessa Marshall), that he was not a dragonfly, but a blue hedgehog from the city of Los Angeles. Sonic Sr decided to leave Brooklyn Heights and went to the New Dragon Temple in Manhattan Island. Sparx, though reluctant at first, decided to follow along. Sonic Sr was pursued by hostile forces, but eventually came into contact with a distraught Ignitus, who although pleased that Sonic Sr was alive, feared that with the New Dragon Temple under occupation by the Apes, led by a large black dragon named Cynder (Adult voiced by Yvette Nicole Brown and Young voiced by Mary-Kate Olsen), their war was already lost but the Allied Forces arrived and later defeated them which they won World War I by liberating the world before they banished her to the underground cave in Siberia. Sonic Sr convinced Ignitus to lead him to the New Temple in New York City, and was able to drive Cynder's forces out, after which Ignitus told Sonic Sr more about their war against the Dark Armies which was ended when the Allied Forces defeated the Dark Armies and liberating the world after they won World War I before they banished Cynder to the underground cave in Moscow, offered Sonic Sr some training in the art of fire as well as using speed tricks, guns and swords after Sonic Sr, Ignitus, the NYPD and the U.S. Military liberated the New Dragon Temple, and then sent Sonic Sr off to fight WWorld War II (in Pacific Theater and European Theater), Vietnam War in the 1960s until 1975 and later the Cold War in 1980s (Sonic Sr's partner Alex Mason was killed by a ally Frank Woods who disobey Sonic Sr's order before escaping to New York in Januiary 14, 1990 after the invasion of Panama) and later Assassinating Raul Menendez (voiced by André Sogliuzzo) at South America in June 8, 1995 thus avenging the deaths of Mason and Hudson for his revenge just before entering the first retirement from the United States Marine Corps. Fifteen years after the end of Cold War and nine years after the assassination of Raul Menendez, Sonic Sr returns home back to San Francisco only to be found by Terra (voiced by Bruce Greenwood) and Aqua (voiced by Bryce Dallas Howard) who offered him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than for the second retirement. One year later in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base, Terra and Aqua take an exam to achieve the Mark of Mastery. Master Xehanort (voiced by Paul St. Peter) manipulates the test so only Aqua passes and Terra fails, lessening the control of darkness in his heart. Shortly after the test, Xehanort disappears and a horde of mysterious creatures called the Unversed begin to appear throughout the major cities in pursuit of the Princesses of Light. Learning about the developments from Yen Sid (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) in the city of Chicago, Master Eraqus (voiced by Donald Sutherland) sends Terra and Aqua to destroy the Unversed and find Xehanort throughout the major cities in the world. Later, Xehanort's apprentice Vanitas (voiced by Michael Fassbender) convinces Sonic Sr to follow Terra to New York City against Eraqus' wish when the Festival of the Sun is began, while Eraqus orders Aqua to watch over Terra and bring Sonic Sr back to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base in San Francisco. Twenty minutes later, Sonic Sr (who is searched for Terra) visited New York City during a festival where he saved their monarch Princess Elise (Adult voiced by Lacey Chabert and Young voiced by Ariel Winter) from Dr. Eggman (voiced by Mike Pollock) who returned from the exile and was also after the Flames of Disaster known as Iblis to help him rule the world which was sealed inside Elise and later killed General Scott Dolph (voiced by Mykelti Williamson). As Sonic Sr brought Elise to safety, he got distracted by Eggman's mechs and Eggman kidnapped Elise and escaped, though not before Sonic Sr received her Chaos Emerald, but the American Soldiers fired on Eggman until Sonic Sr told them to seize fire and contact the U.S. President Charles Jackson (voiced by John C. Reilly). Determined to save Elise, Sonic Sr (who knocked out cold and taken to London by Leon (voiced by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Yuffie (voiced by Christy Carlson Romano, the new S.H.I.E.L.D. agents) teamed up with Tails (Adult voiced by Dakota Fanning, Teen voiced by Aria Noelle Curzon and Young voiced by Michelle Ruff) and reunited with Aqua the next day, explored to London until they were meet by Peter Pan (voiced by Johnny Yong Bosch) who take them to Never Land. Later they would tried to catch the Egg Carrier at Never Land after defeating Captain Hook (voiced by Kaiji Tang) who is chased by Tick-Tock the Crocodile (vocal effects by Frank Welker) before he head back to Hook's ship, but failed. But before returning to New York City, they were transported to the Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago by using Mickey's (voiced by Yuri Lowenthal) Star Shard before they were found by Donald (voiced by Tony Anselmo) and Goofy (voiced by Bill Farmer). After arriving from Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago, Sonic Sr, Tails and Aqua learned Elise was in Egypt along with King Mickey. There, they found Elise and King Mickey only for Eggman to attack them with the Egg Cerberus (vocal effects by Frank Welker). After Sonic Sr destroyed it, Sonic Sr escaped Eggman's forces with Elise by letting Tails create a diversion with the help of Aqua, but not before sending Mickey to Paris (who is saved by Aqua and taken back to Yen Sid's Tower in Chicago) and also saving the two Dragon Guardians Cyril (voiced by Roger Craig Smith) and Volteer (Adult voiced by Travis Willingham and Young voiced by Jim Cummings). As they escaped, Elise treated Sonic Sr's injuries (who is wounded during the escape) and apologized for them, but Sonic Sr insisted her smile was all he needed. Sonic Sr was then filled in on the Flames of Disaster and Solaris (Soleanna's sun god) by Elise, who grew worried of what Eggman would do with it. However, Sonic Sr cheered her up with a run along with Cyril and Volteer and gave her some advice with Cyril and Volteer to go by which was located in the heart of Sydney, Australia. Later in the city of Sydney with Elise, Cyril and Volteer, Sonic Sr was attacked by Silver the Hedgehog (voiced by Hayden Christensen), who claimed that Sonic Sr would destroy his world but Cyril and Volteer intervened and told Silver that Sonic Sr would never do that and ordered him to disobey Mephiles' order in which he refused. Sonic Sr initially had the upper hand, but Silver caught him off-guard and incapacitated him. Meanwhile, Sonic Sr saw Eggman kidnap Elise again, but was unable to save her. Luckily, Sonic Sr was saved when Amy (Adult voiced by Gabrielle Union, Teen voiced by Cree Summer and Young voiced by Eden Riegel) stopped Silver, and he went to warn Eraqus in San Francisco, where Eraqus plans to betray Sonic Sr when he refused to tell that Silver is trying to kill Sonic Sr. Terra arrives to save Sonic Sr and fights with Eraqus. Upon his defeat for his treachery, Eraqus is vanquished by Xehanort, who destroys the S.H.I.E.L.D. Base and tells Terra to go to the city of Los Angeles. Sonic Sr returned from San Francisco and reunited with Cyril and Volteer before they met up with Tails and Knuckles (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson), who gave him a message from Eggman demanding Sonic Sr’s Chaos Emerald in exchange for Elise. Despite knowing that Cyril and Volteer told Sonic Sr that it would be a trap in which he ignored and told to return to the New Dragon Temple in which Cyril and Volteer both accepts it, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles arrived at Siberian Mountains in Russia, where Sonic Sr gave Eggman the Chaos Emerald, but was tricked and sent to the future by Eggman's machine with his friends and the mission ends with a failure. After Team Sonic's failed attempt to rescue Princess Elise, U.S. President Charles Jackson orders to sent the U.S. Navy SEALs to hunt down Eggman, avenge Scott Dolph's death and rescued Princess Elise in Siberia and returns to New York City in United States. Arriving in the Pride Lands after Mufasa's (archive recordings by James Earl Jones) death in which Scar (also voiced by Jim Cummings) became King, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles encounter Shadow (voiced by David Gallagher) and Rouge (voiced by Brittny Snow), who are also trapped in the Pride Lands. In order to return to the present, they need to create a rift in time and space, which they figure can be created if Sonic Sr and Shadow use Chaos Control together. While searching for Chaos Emeralds, Sonic Sr, Tails and Knuckles encounter Silver, his friend Blaze (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), and Mephiles (voiced by Dwayne Johnson), a dark being who resembles Shadow, tells Silver that Sonic Sr is the one responsible for the future's devastation, and takes them back in time to kill Sonic Sr until he is betrayed by Silver (who is told by Terra to disobey Mephiles' order) and Blaze who disobeyed him two days later. Sonic Sr learns from a computer file that Elise was killed when Sergei executed her during interrigation two days after the Festival of the Sun in New York City. After retrieving a pair of Chaos Emeralds, Sonic Sr and Shadow create the space-time rift, allowing them to return to the present after Eggman's death and Sergei (voiced by Robert De Niro) leds his mercenaries to capture Elise before were attacked by Cynder shortly after he rescues the final Dragon Guardian, Terrador (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson) and Simba (also voiced by Cameron Clarke) became the King of the Pride Lands after overthrow Scar who he is now eaten alive by Hyenas (Shenzi voiced by Whoopi Goldberg, Banzai voiced by Michael Kenneth Wiliams and Ed's vocal effects by John DiMaggio) after the battle with Simba which end with his defeat; Ignitus intervenes to fight Cynder but is kidnapped. It is revealed that it was the four dragons who originally sealed away the Dark Master, and that Cynder is using the dragons' drained powers to open the seal. In Silver's future, Shadow faces Mephiles, and learns that in the future he was imprisoned by Omega (voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly), blamed for the destruction in which he refused to be blamed and defeats Mephiles with the help of Omega. Shadow and Omega then return to the present-day. Sonic Sr returns to Brooklyn Bridge to look for Elise, but is once again attacked by Silver, also allowing Sergei to kidnap Elise yet again and Sonic Sr orders the U.S. Marines to fire on Silver but Silver wiped the Marines out. Fortunately, Terra stops Silver from killing Sonic Sr and tells him to disobey Mephiles' obey in which Silver accepts him and goes to Times Square to find and disobey Mephiles, allowing Sonic Sr to rescue Elise, But before he returns her to Liberty Island in New York Harbor, he was contacted by Mickey to meet in Never Land. After Never Land, Sonic Sr sent Shadow to Egypt to confront Xehanort, who instructs him to destroy Vanitas, the source of the Unversed created from the darkness extracted from Shadow' heart. Xehanort sends Shadow to the Enchanted Dominion, where Shadow finds Maleficent (voiced by Susanne Blakeslee) and later meet Silver (who helped Flora (voiced by Barbara Dirickson), Fauna (voiced by Laura Bailey) and Merryweather (voiced by Tress MacNeille) to free Aurora's (voiced by Kate Higgins) heart) in the Dark Castle in five minutes later. After the battle, Shadow and Silver travel ten years into the past and learn Iblis (also voiced by Frank Welker) and Mephiles are parts of the Duke of Soleanna's (voiced by Christopher Plummer) project to harness the power of the city's god Solaris. The Duke gives Shadow the Scepter of Darkness, which he uses to seal Mephiles, while Silver and the Duke seals Iblis into a young Elise's tears, the dying Duke asks his daughter not to cry for her tears could release Iblis just before United States Army General Scott Dolph came and adopt her as an adoptive sister of United States. Ten years later in New York City, Sergei and his Russian Troops arrives in his battleship and threatens to destroy New York City, Elise willingly surrenders herself to him to protect her people. But Americans refused to surrender and fires on the Russians after Elise surrenders herself to Sergei. Sergei explains to Elise that in order for his plan to take over the world to work, he requires the seven Chaos Emeralds and the dormant power of the Flames of Disaster within Elise to awaken Solaris (also voiced by Frank Welker), allowing him to harness the sun god's power over time. Shadow is similarly instructed to do the same by Vanitas (who is called a traitor to S.H.I.E.L.D.), as is Sonic Sr by Yen Sid, who informs him about Solaris before going to save Elise. On his way to rescue Elise, Sonic Sr encounters Silver (who disobey Mephiles' order) once more who, instead of attacking him, expresses concern for Elise as well. The two hedgehogs team up, but before they reach the battleship, it went to the Russian Federation, just as Sonic Sr feared while back at the future. However, Sonic Sr and Silver realize they can use Chaos Control to travel back in time to the previous day, but instead Sonic Sr goes on the Blackhawk Helicopter with Navy SEALs and reunites with Elise after the interrigation is interrupted and the plan was foiled. Later, Cynder betrays Sergei which she deals to bring back the Dark Master. Ignitus's power is the final key in unsealing the Dark Master, so Sonic is sent the American Forces on a final, direct assault against Russian Base in Moscow. Sonic Sr attempts to fight Cynder, but Cynder succeeds in draining Ignitus's power of fire into a crystal, and escapes to the sealed realm of the Dark Master but not before he blames Cynder for the draining of Dragon Guardians' power. During the fight, Sonic Sr had noticed there was something familiar in Cynder's eyes. Ignitus then tells Sonic Sr the rest of the story of what happened the night of the attack on the temple in 1925. After sending Sonic Sr's egg down from Los Angeles to New York City, Ignitus had returned to see that the Dark Master's forces had destroyed the brood of eggs before the Los Angeles Police Officers and American Military Soldiers kills the Dark Master's forces, except one - for only a dragon born in the Year of the Dragon can open the portal and release the Dark Master: Cynder, who had been transformed by the Dark Master's sinister powers. Ignitus fears that it is too late to stop her, but Sonic Sr told him to take Elise back to the Untied States before pursuing Cynder and forces a showdown, eventually using all of his power in a final attack which defeats her, purging her of the Dark Master's influence and returning her to her true form, a young dragon the same size as Sonic Sr. The realm begins to collapse in on itself; Sparx insists on making a quick exit but Sonic Sr declares he will not leave Cynder behind with the Dark Master; though barely, Sonic Sr is able to grab Cynder after he used the M67 grenade to destroy the Dark Master's portal as well as the crystal, thus foiling her plan to free the Dark Master and escape safely to the exit while Ignitus takes Elise to escape from the exploding Russian Base and makes it back to the Russian Heights before he and Aqua taking her, Sonic Sr, Cynder and Sparx back to the New Dragon Temple in New York City. After Cynder's defeat, Mephiles (who is betrayed by Silver and Blaze who disobeyed his order twenty mintues ago) is seen sporting an evil look as he finally seems prepared to merge with Iblis and destroy the world before helping Xehanort and Vanitas. Using his Purple Emerald, Mephiles blinds Sonic Sr and Elise, who were reunited by Terra and Aqua in the New York City from where Sonic Sr's storyline left off. When they are confronted by Xehanort, Vanitas and Mephiles, they fought in the New York Streets and after the fight with Xehanort, Vanitas and Mephiles, he launches an energy beam that impales Sonic Sr through the back, killing him instantly, U.S. National Guardsmen and the U.S. Army tries to kill Mephiles and avenging Sonic Sr's death, but Mephiles pushed back. Elise frantically attempts to revive Sonic Sr, but upon discovering that he is indeed dead, she cries in despair, releasing Iblis. At this point, Mephiles absorbs Iblis, mutates into a monster known as Solaris and then creates his own world to destroy time itself. Continuing from where Shadow's story ended, he and his friends recover from their battle with the Mephiles clones and Shadow notices the Green and Yellow Chaos Emeralds that Mephiles left behind. These create a blinding flash that send Shadow, Rouge and Omega to the time-space rift formed by Solaris. Meanwhile, in New York City, Amy, Tails and Knuckles notice a large bright light that engulfs Manhattan. When the light fades, they realize that they have also been transported to the rift where all of the previous levels in the game exist. Amy is the first to spot Silver, who has been teleported here as well by the Chaos Emeralds that Blaze used to seal Iblis within her. Everyone notices that they have all been brought to this strange place, even the ghost of Dr. Eggman appeared to them. As they try to understand what was happening, Dr. Eggman's Ghost reveals that Iblis' seal has been broken. It is then that they turn and see Elise, cradling Sonic's body in her arms. After a few realizations, Eggman's Ghost reveals that Solaris is about to bring about the end of the world by destroying time itself, and that, being a transcendental life form, it cannot be defeated in the present as it exists in all timelines, so defeating it in the present would return to normal. Silver refuses to give up, and suggests that they team up and destroy Solaris in the past, present and future all at once, but Shadow quickly shoots that possibility down, stating that, with Sonic Sr dead, Solaris is completely unstoppable. With Amy upset over Sonic Sr's death and their impending doom, Elise recognizes a familiar wind in the air that makes her come to believe that Sonic Sr may not be entirely dead yet. Silver, furthering Elise's observations, explains that they can use the Chaos Emeralds to revive him. After a lengthy search on the part of Tails, Omega, Knuckles, Silver, Rouge, Amy, and Shadow along with Simba, Terrador, Cyril, Nala (also voiced by Vanessa Marshall), Timon (voiced by Kevin Schon), Pumbaa (voiced by Ernie Sabella), Cinderella (voiced by Jennifer Hale), Prince Charming (voiced by Brendan Fraser), Snow White (voiced by Carolyn Gardner), Princess Aurora, Peter Pan, Prince Philip (also voiced by Roger Craig Smith), Flora, Fauna, Merryweather, Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara), Beast (voiced by Robby Benson), Volteer, Zazu (voiced by Jeff Bennett), Lumiere (voiced by Troy Baker), Cogsworth (voiced by David Odgen Stiers), Jaq (voiced by Rob Paulsen), Captain Jack Sparrow (voiced by James Arnold Taylor), Will Turner (voiced by Crispin Freman), Quasimodo (voiced by Steve Van Wormer), Phoebus (voiced by Dave Fennoy), Terra, Aqua, Ignitus and Sparx, they find the Chaos Emeralds and revive Sonic Sr, with Elise's kiss transforming him into Super Sonic Sr with Keyblade Armor. Super Sonic Sr uses his power to transform Shadow and Silver into their Super States. Together, the three hedgehogs fight Solaris. The three use Chaos Control on Solaris causing the monster to be torn apart in a time loop. Sonic Sr, now back to normal, travels with Elise to a point in the past where they find the "Flames of Disaster" and its birth. Elise realizes that if she puts out the Flames, Solaris will never exist. But before restoring back to the present day America after Eggman's death, Terra's heart is almost swallowed by darkness in the ensuing battle, but Silver Jr seals Xehanort with Prison Box while Shadow is forced to be possessed by Vanitas to create the χ-blade. Aqua, Sonic Sr, Silver and Mickey fight with the possessed Shadow after Sonic Sr and Aqua defeated Braig (voiced by Bruce Campbell), while Shadow engages Vanitas in a metaphysical battle within his own mind. Sonic Sr and Aqua destroys the χ-blade as Shadow defeats Vanitas, though Shadow sacrificed himself for the fate of all worlds as a result after removing Inhibitor Rings and gives the rings to her. After learning of Shadow's fate, she, Sonic Sr, Aqua and Mickey will never meet each other, which Sonic Sr and Aqua confirms. Overcome with despair, Elise begins to cry and shouts that she does not care what happens to the world as long as she and Sonic Sr are friends but Aqua told her to cheer up in which she refused. Though Sonic Sr is clearly unhappy about this as well, he tells Elise to just smile and manages to convince her to abandon their meeting. She confidently puts out the Flames, eliminating Solaris from existence once and for all. Though victorious, the battle cost Sonic Sr much of his own strength and powers as the time restores back to the present day America after Eggman's death. Elise is in her boat waving the audience as Sonic Sr runs through the public, the "wind" of his speed making Elise lose one of the feathers in her hair. A maid (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) asks her if everything is alright, and Elise says that she thought someone was calling her while Scott Dolph watches her arrival. Another maid (also voiced by Grey DeLisle) replies that it's just the wind, and Elise says that it might be, but that it felt familiar somehow, and smiles, apparently knowing who it was. She arrives New York City from Soleanna as Sonic Sr watches from the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. Sonic Sr watching Elise's feather flying into the night, also smiling and Sonic Sr reuniting with Terra, Aqua and Cynder for a suspect that the Dark Master is still alive somewhere; the war is still far from over. In a post-credits scene sets in three days later in San Francisco, new S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (voiced by Beau Billingslea) (who replaces Master Eraqus) visits Sonic Sr and Cynder (who both returned home from New York City after he defeated Solaris with the help of Silver and Shadow), telling him that Sonic the Hedgehog Sr is not "the only superhero in the world", and explaining that he, Terra, Aqua and Cynder wants to discuss the "Avenger Initiative". Sonic Sr's Final Mission 16 years before Sonic Sr (Adult voiced by Patrick Dempsey and Young voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris) become the Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Sonic Sr (who is served as the soldier of the U.S. Marine Corps Force Reconnaissance) is sent by Ignitus (voiced by Ken Hudson Campbell) to go to Panama and visit Frank Woods (voiced by Bruce willis) and Alex Mason (voiced by Ben Affleck) one last time before they meet at Mark McKnight's (voiced by Thomas Haden Church) home in Clayton, Panama for discussing Noriega's (voiced by Miguel Ferrer) capture, and on December 20, during the midnight attack, deploy closeby to the Panama City, starting the search for Noriega. Sonic Sr, Alex and Frank move to a nearby airfield, where they see Noriega's jet, but Noriega was in a hotel not far from the airfield. The team arrives at the hotel and capture Noriega, and later are informed by Jason Hudson (voiced by David Carradine) that he is an HVI and must be taken to a US Army checkpoint for a prisoner exchange. The exchange was going to take place at the Miraflores Locks, Panama Canal. The prisoner is brought out with his head bagged and restrained by Panamanian soldiers. Woods is told by Sonic Sr to shoot, he does so and when Woods removes the bag to confirm the kill, he notices that the target was Mason instead of Menendez much to Sonic Sr's confusion, and tries to warn him that was definitely a set up before they were suddenly ambushed by Menendez (voiced by Peter Stormare), who shoots his kneecaps and headbutts him, knocking him out but not before he tells Sonic Sr to escape to New York City. Woods awakens to find Alex's body, Hudson tied to a chair and David tied to a pole while in a trance. Hudson admits that he was forced to manipulate Woods, in order to prevent David (voiced by Jake T. Austin) from being killed. Menendez says that one of the three people must also die, or in ten seconds they're all dead. Hudson at first, hesitates saying that he has two kids, but unwilling to let David or Woods die for what he has done, he immediately tells Menendez to kill him. Menendez shoots Hudson with his shotgun in both of his knees, then slits his throat with the point of Josefina's heart shaped pendent. Instead of killing Woods too, he leaves while telling him that he will now feel as much as pain as he had when Josefina died. Before he leaves, he moves close to David and shows him the heart-shaped pendent telling him that one day David will see it again, and that when he does, David will remember what happened that night, and will come to Menendez. Then, as Menendez leaves the room, David wakes from his trance, and begins crying when he sees the corpse of his father, Alex. Later in America on Janaury 14, 1990, Sonic Sr blaming himself for not saving Mason and Hudson and later went to Washington, D.C. to ask President Bill Clinton (voiced by Jamieson Price) for a mission to take down Raul Menendez for setting them up in which he accepts it. Two months later, Sonic Sr confronts and blames Raul Menendez for murdering Mason and Hudson at the apartment in Rio de Janeiro, where he unhesitantly shoots Menendez dead and avenging the deaths of Alex Mason and Jason Hudson thus completing his mission and extracted via the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. After the mission, Sonic Sr visits both their graves in the Arlington Cemetery just before he continue working for 3 years in Somalia before going for the first retirement for being a United States Marine. In the post-credits scene, Sonic Sr returns home back to San Francisco only to be found by Terra (voiced by Michael T. Weiss replacing Bruce Greenwood) and Aqua (voiced by Olivia D'Abo replacing Bryce Dallas Howard) who offered him to join S.H.I.E.L.D. rather than for the second retirement. Development After finishing Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (2003), Sonic Team began to plan its next project (with Radical Entertainment, Raven Software, High Moon Studios, Beenox and Saber Interactive). Among the ideas the team was considering was a game with a realistic tone and an advanced physics engine. When Sega reassigned the team to start working on a new game in the bestselling Sonic series, they decided to retain the realistic approach. Sonic the Hedgehog was conceived for sixth generation consoles, but Sonic Team and Radical Entertainment realized its release would coincide with the series' 15th anniversary and decided to develop it for seventh generation consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Series co-creator and team lead Yuji Naka wanted the first Sonic game for seventh generation systems to be a reboot of the franchise. Naka noted the success of superhero films such as Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Batman Begins (2005)—which reached an audience far beyond fans of the comics those films were based on—and wanted to mimic this success. Thus, development of Sonic the Hedgehog began in late 2004. Sonic Team decided to use the same title as the original 1991 game that had launched the franchise to indicate that it would be a major advance from the previous games. The Havok physics engine, previously used in their PlayStation 2 game Astro Boy (2004), allowed Sonic Team to create expansive levels previously impossible on earlier sixth generation consoles and experiment with multiple play-styles. In addition, the engine also enabled Sonic Team to experiment with aspects such as global illumination, a night-and day system, and giving Sonic new abilities like using ropes to leap into the air. Director Richard Donner demonstrated the engine during their stage shows at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) in 2005. As the hardware of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was more powerful compared to the prior generation's consoles, the design team was able to create a more realistic setting than those of previous Sonic games. Sonic and Doctor Eggman were redesigned to better suit this updated environment: Sonic was made taller, with longer quills, and Eggman was made slimmer and given a more realistic appearance. Donner, Minkoff and producers Lauren Shuler Donner, Don Hahn, Dino De Laurentiis, Martha De Laurentiis, Baker Bloodworth and Raffaella De Laurentiis along with the executive producers Francis Ford Coppola, Zack Snyder, [Snyder reasoned this was because the characters would be interacting with more humans, and felt it would make the game more appealing to older players. At one point, Sonic Team considered giving Sonic realistic fur and rubber textures. While Sonic Team had a major focus on the visuals, they considered their primary challenge creating a game that was as appealing as the original Sega Genesis Sonic games. They felt the preceding titles Sonic Heroes (2003) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) had veered into different directions and wanted to return the series to its speed-based roots in new ways. For example, they wanted to include multiple paths in levels, like the Genesis games had, a goal the realistic environments helped achieve. Sonic Team sought to "aggressively" address problems with the virtual camera system from earlier Sonic games, something they had received many complaints about. Silver the Hedgehog's gameplay style was born out of Sonic Team's desire to take advantage of Havok's realistic physics capabilities. The first design concept for Silver's character was an orange mink; he attained his final hedgehog look after over 50 design iterations. In designing Shadow's gameplay, the developers abandoned the concept of firearms previously used in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) in favor of combat elements to differentiate him from the other characters. Shadow's gameplay was further fleshed out with the addition of vehicles; each vehicle uses its own physical engine. The game also features several CGI cutscenes produced by Blur Studio. Animation supervisor Leo Santos said Blur faced challenges animating the opening scene due to the placement of Sonic's mouth. As development progressed, Sonic Team faced serious problems, starting with Naka's resignation as head of Sonic Team to form his own company, Prope. Naka has said he resigned because he did not want to continue making Sonic games and instead wished to focus on original properties. With his departure, "the heart and soul of Sonic" was gone, according to former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske. Sonic the Hedgehog was originally intended for release on all major seventh generation consoles as well as Windows, but Sega was presented with development kits for Nintendo's less powerful Wii console. Sega, Warner Bros. and Vivendi Games believed porting the game to PS2 and Wii would take too long, and so conceived a Sonic game that would use the motion detection function of its controller. Therefore, the team was split in two: Donner led one team to finish Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 while Francis Ford Coppola led the other to begin work on Sonic and the Secret Rings for the PlayStation 2 and Wii. The split left an unusually small team to work on Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega pressured the team to finish the game in time for the 2006 holiday shopping season, so with the deadline quickly approaching, Sonic Team rushed the final stages of development, ignoring bug reports from Sega's quality assurance department and control problems. In retrospect, Ogawa noted that the final period proved to be a large challenge for the team. Not only was the Xbox 360 release imminent, but the PlayStation 3 launch was scheduled not long afterwards. This put tremendous pressure on the team to develop for both systems. Producer Takashi Iizuka similarly recalled, "we didn't have any time to polish and we were just churning out content as quick as we could." Audio Charles Nelson Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ginnifer Goodwin, Dwayne Johnson, Mykelti Williamson, Robert De Niro, John C. Reilly, Christopher Plummer, Yvette Nicole Brown, Zachary Gordon, Don Knotts (in his final role), W. Morgan Sheppard, Brendan Fraser, Bryce Dallas Howard, Bruce Greenwood, Donald Sutherland, Lance Henriksen, Michael Fassbender, Michael Keaton, Bruce Campbell, Wayne Knight, Benedict Cumberbatch, William Fichtner, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Tobey Maguire play their voice roles for Sonic the Hedgehog while Kristen Bell, Mike Pollock, David Gallagher, Brittany Snow, David Spade, Mandy Moore, Steve Burton, Christy Carlson Romano and Gary Oldman reprising the roles with the new actors Patrick Dempsey, Samuel L. Jackson and Maggie Gyllenhaal replaced the previous actors James Marsden, Kevin Michael Richardson and Jacqueline Obradors, and actress Lacey Chabert supplied the voice of series newcomer and damsel in distress, Princess Elise. The score for the game was primarily composed by Alan Menken and Harry Gregson-Williams with the additional music composed by Stephen Barton, Halli Cauthery, David Buckley, Tom Holkenborg and Nick Glennie-Smith while the music programming provided by Justin Burnett, Hybrid, Toby Chu and James McKee Smith. It was the first Sonic game that Tomoya Ohtani worked on as sound director. The main theme for the game, the fantasy-rap song "His world", composed by Alan Menken, written by Ali Tabatabaee, Shaffer Smith and Stephen Schwartz, is performed by Bryan Adams and Ne-Yo with the background vocals by The Pointless Brothers, Ali Tabatabaee and Matty Lewis of the band Zebrahead. "Weird Al" Yankovic and B.B. King performed Shadow's theme, "All Hail Shadow", while Jesse McCartney, Nicole Morier and Junkie XL sang Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution". R&B artist Akon performed a remix of the Celine Dion and Peabo Bryson song "Sweet Sweet Sweet" (with B.B. King, Lady Gaga, Pharrell Williams, Joseph Williams, Hollywood Film Chorale and Sally Dworsky, a song previously used as the ending theme to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992). Because it was the first Sonic game for seventh generation consoles, Menken and Gregson-Williams "aimed to emphasise that it was an epic next-generation title." Two soundtrack albums were released on January 10, 2007, under Warner Sunset Records and Atlantic Records labels: Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills and Sonic the Hedgehog Original Soundtrack. Vocal Traxx: Several Wills contains seven songs; four are from the game, while the remaining three are remixes, including a version of "His World" performed by Linkin Park and My Destiny by Idina Menzel.Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills booklet, pages 1—2. Original Soundtrack includes all 93 tracks featured in Sonic the Hedgehog, spanning three discs.(January 10, 2007) Sonic the Hedgehog Original Soundtrack. Sega. Later in the DLC Sonic Sr's Final Mission after the game's release, in which Benjamin wallfisch and Stephen Barton both returned to compose the score. Promotion and release ". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved on November 22, 2008. (X360) 43/100"Sonic the Hedgehog Reviews (PS3) ". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved on November 22, 2008. (PS3) | 1UP = C (X360) | EuroG = 2/10 (X360) | Fam = 30/40 (X360) 29/40 (PS3) | GI = 6.75/10 (X360) | GSpot = 4.4/10 (X360) 4.2/10 (PS3) | GSpy = (X360) | GRadar = | GameZone = 4.5/10 (X360) | IGN = 4.8/10 (X360) 4.2/10 (PS3) | OXMUK = 6/10 (X360) | Play = 5.5/10 (PS3) 8.5/10 (X360) | PSM3 = 4.7/10 (PS3) | TX = 6/10 (X360) | rev1 = The A.V. Club | rev1Score = D− }} Sonic the Hedgehog was well-received during prerelease showings. Reception to prior games Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog had been mixed; after a number of well-received showings and demos, some felt Sonic the Hedgehog could be a return to the series' roots. GameSpot said the game "showed a considerable amount of promise" after playing a demo at E3 2006, and GameSpy praised its graphics and environments. In 2008 GamesRadar said that it had looked "amazing" before its release. At the time of release, the game received widespread negative reviews. Metacritic classified both versions' reception as "generally unfavorable". Sega reported that the game sold strongly, with 870,000 units sold in the United States and Europe within six months. The Xbox 360 version was branded under the Platinum Hits budget line. Critics were divided on the game's presentation. IGN called its graphics and audio "decent" and felt its interface and menu system worked well but lacked polish, but GameSpot said the graphics, while colorful, were bland and only a small improvement over sixth-generation games, a sentiment echoed by 1UP.com. Game Informer and Eurogamer noted several graphical glitches. Eurogamer also criticized the decision to continue the Sonic Adventure (1998) style of gameplay, believing that Sonic Team had learned nothing from the criticisms of past games. Reviewers singled out the game's camera system, loading times, controls, level designs, and glitches. GameSpot said the level design was worsened by the frustrating camera system, and Game Informer criticized the game's high difficulty, citing the camera as causing most deaths. Some reviewers were unhappy that the majority of the game was not spent playing as Sonic; playing as Tails, GameSpot wrote, made a level boring. Similar criticism was offered by Eurogamer, finding that the supporting cast annoyed rather than fleshing the game out; they considered the camera system to be the worst they had ever seen in a video game. On the positive side, 1UP felt that despite the control and level design problems, the game still played like a Sonic game. The plot was criticized as confusing and inappropriately dark. GamesRadar considered it overwrought and "conceptually challenged", and Eurogamer found its voice acting painful and its cutscenes cringeworthy. Some reviewers unfavorably compared the story to that of an anime or Final Fantasy. The romance between Sonic and the human Princess Elise was especially criticized; for GamesTM, it marked the point "the [Sonic] series had veered off into absolute nonsense." "This ... is a mess from top to bottom", wrote GameSpot, that "only the most blindly reverent Sonic the Hedgehog fan could possibly squeeze any enjoyment out of". IGN said that the game had some redeeming qualities, with brief segments of gameplay that demonstrated how a next-generation Sonic game could work, but found it "rips them away as soon as it shows them" and concluded that the game failed to reinvent the series. Eurogamer believed that Sonic the Hedgehog s mistakes would have been noticed even if the game had been released in 1996. Despite the mostly negative reception, Game Informer and Dave Halverson of Play Magazine defended the game. Game Informer described it as ambitious and praised the graphics, story, amount of content, and replay value, but believed only Sonic fans would enjoy the game. Halverson initially gave the Xbox 360 version a 9.5/10, praising each character's controls and abilities and calling it the best 3D Sonic game yet. In the following issue, Halverson reassessed it as 8.5/10, writing that he had been told that the load times and glitches in his review copy would not be in the final version of the game. In a later review of the PlayStation 3 version, Halverson was frustrated that the problems had still not been corrected and that the performance was worse despite the extra development time; Halverson gave this version a 5.5/10. The A.V. Club said in 2016 that despite the game's poor quality, the soundtrack has some "genuine rippers". Legacy GameTrailers and GamesRadar considered Sonic the Hedgehog one of the most disappointing games of 2006. GamesTM singled out the game when it ranked the Sonic franchise at the top of their list of "Video Game Franchises That Lost Their Way". The A.V. Club, Kotaku, Game Informer, and USgamer called the game the worst in the Sonic series, and the staff of GamesRadar named it among the worst video games of all time. The game remains popular for "Let's Play" walkthroughs, with players showing off its glitches. The official Sonic Twitter account also mocks the game. The failure of Sonic the Hedgehog led to the direction of the series being rethought. The next main Sonic game and sequel to the 2006 video game of the same name, 2008's ''Unleashed'', ignored the gritty and realistic tone of its predecessor. With Unleashed's sequel Sonic Colors (2010), The A.V. Club wrote, "the series rediscovered its strength for whimsical tales with light tones." Sonic the Hedgehog introduced Silver the Hedgehog, Princess Elise, Mephiles, and Iblis to the franchise; most have made few appearances since. Silver is a playable character in Sonic Rivals (2006) and its sequel, in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2007), and in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and its sequels, and is a minor character in the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors (2010) and Sonic Forces: The Final Battle (2017) (appeared in flashbacks). He also appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series published by Archie Comics. The main theme of Sonic the Hedgehog, "His World", was sampled in Drake's 2017 song "KMT". To celebrate the Sonic franchise's 20th anniversary in 2011, Sega, Warner Bros. and Activision released Sonic Generations, which remade aspects of past Sonic games. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows versions feature a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog s "Crisis City" level, and every version, including the Nintendo 3DS version, includes a reimagined version of the boss battle with Silver. The decision to include Sonic the Hedgehog stages and bosses in Sonic Generations was criticized by critics and fans of the series; Jim Sterling of Destructoid referred to the Silver boss fight as the "catch" of the otherwise high-quality game. In 2015, a fan group, Gistix, began developing a remake for Windows using the Unity engine. A demo was released in January 2017, and was positively received by journalists. A second demo was released in late 2017, which Eurogamer called ambitious. A second team of fans, led by ChaosX, began developing a separate PC remake in Unity under the codename "Project 06", releasing 2 demos throughout 2019. Notes References External links *Official website *[http://info.sonicretro.org/Sonic_the_Hedgehog_(2006_game) Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 game)] on Sonic Retro, for character stats and additional plot details Category:2006 video games Category:3D platform games Category:Apocalyptic video games Category:Beenpx games Category:Cancelled PlayStation 2 games Category:Cancelled Wii games Category:Cancelled Windows games Category:Films directed by Richard Donner Category:Films produced by Lauren Shuler Donner Category:Films produced by Don Hahn Category:Films produced by Francis Ford Coppola Category:Films produced by Zack Snyder Category:Films produced by Deborah Snyder Category:Films produced by Dino De Laurentiis Category:Films produced by Martha De Laurentiis Category:Films produced by Raffaella De Laurentiis Category:High Moon Studios games Category:Raven Software games Category:Video games with screenplays by Chris Terrio Category:Video games with screenplays by Roger Allers Category:Video games with screenplays by Linda Woolverton Category:PlayStation 3 games Category:Radical Entertainment games Category:Romance video games Category:Saber Interactive games Category:Sega video games Category:Sierra Entertainment games Category:Size change in fiction Category:Sonic Team games Category:Sonic the Hedgehog video games Category:Time travel video games Category:Universal Interactive games Category:Video games developed in Japan Category:Warner Bros. 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